Are Caleb Williams, Bears Starters Playing in Preseason Week 1 vs. Browns?

The Chicago Bears will begin their preseason slate on Saturday against the Browns. Here's what we know about whether or not the starters will play.

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Chicago Bears will take part in their first contest of the 2026 preseason on Saturday with a games against the Cleveland Browns at Soldier Field.

The game is the first of three on the Bears' preseason slate. After Saturday, Chicago will square off against the Cincinnati Bengals in preseason Week 2 and will then close out the exhibition schedule versus the Tennessee Titans in preseason Week 3.

We know we'll see plenty of rookies and players fighting for a spot on the Bears' 53-man roster in action, but will the team deploy its starters, also?

Here's what we know.

Are Caleb Williams, Bears starters playing?

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Head coach Ben Johnson told reporters on Thursday that Caleb Williams will not suit up in preseason Week 1 versus the Browns.

When it comes to the rest of the team's starters, Johnson did not say who will or won't play. Instead, he said "a number" of starters won't play.

"We'll end up sitting a number of our starters as we view it on both sides of the ball," Johnson shared. "There will be a handful of guys that aren't participating in this matchup, and yet I think we're going to get some good evals of the guys that are out there and make sure that we have enough to go win this game."

When it comes to the rest of the preseason, Johnson was non-committal about Williams and the starters who don't play on Saturday playing at all during the preseason.

"Next week we can address when it gets there," Johnson said. But we have a plan in place of the reps, the workload we want to get as a team between the joint practice with Cincinnati and the game reps as well."

"But do I need to see Caleb Williams in the preseason? No, I don't," he added. "I see him every single day in practice and I know what we're going to get come the season, and yet there is a workload and there is a number of reps that we want to hit as a team, so [we will] make sure we even that out whether that's game reps or not."

With joint practices with the Bengals and Titans coming up in the next few weeks, the Bears might feel like that's enough to get Williams and others ready to go for Week 1.

While not confirmed, we would expect to see Dillon Thieneman among the starters who do suit up. Chicago probably wants the rookie to get his feet wet in live game action before he plays an important role in the defense in 2026.

We should know more the closer to kickoff we get, but if not we'll know for sure when Chicago takes the field for the noon CT start.